Proposal of an Encoded Marker for Working Robots: An Encoded Marker Easy to Detect in Various Positions and under Blur

Abstract

SUMMARY It is becoming important for working robots to be able to identify and pick objects in various tasks. As in the recent Amazon Picking Challenge, using a marker for the picking task is a more practicable approach. However, a common maker code for working robots does not exist so far. Conventional maker codes as represented by QR code or ARToolKit marker cannot be reliably detected from various viewpoints. Thus, in this paper, we propose a new encoded marker which is flexible to the marker's position and blur. The proposed marker can be detected by an approach based on the scale space theory independent from such conditions. In addition, the representation of data by M‐sequence makes the encoded marker robust to blur. Experimental results showed the effectiveness of the proposed marker compared to the ARToolKit marker. Since the marker is more robust against ground clutter noise, various positions of markers and blur, it is more practicable.